Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-09-14

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"7Mis is my adopted daughter, Pleasance
Noel"
''Call me Pleasance," I said, initiating
Dan, in order to show my good breeding.
81 am used to it,"
"Pleasance, then. Ny name is William
Campion. Perhaps you would let me
play to you sometimes?"
In the case was fiddle. This wonder
full young man could play the fiddle!
Now, of all the instruments Of music
which man has ever invented for drawing
forth the soul of man, it has always
seemed to me that the fiddle is the most
efficacious At the first stroke Of the bow
dumped in my seat and clasped my hands.
AS he stood by the window and drew out
the Dir softly and sweetly, my spirit hung
upon the notes, and for the time was in
sweet heaven.
He only played one tune then. When
he had finished it, he laid back the fiddle
in its case-I noticed with what tender
ness, as if he loved it.
''Did you like it, Pleasance?" he asked.
"But saw that you did,"
Then made tea, luxury not Of every
day-Job and Jephthah, who did not like
tea, and were modest, stayed in the farm
yard among the pigs-and after tea MIR.
Campion, Dan and I, all three, went down
to the bay and talked about boats. First
we went aboard the Dancing Polly,
and Mr.. Campion praised her lines, and
then we looked ut the Chace Mary; and
when there was nothing more to be said
about either of these two crafts we got
into the dingy and went for sail, hold
ing the tiller Ats after the sun had set,
we got back again and went home. re-
member that there was cold boiled hand
of pork for supper, and thai JOB and
Jephthah, who had polished up their faces
with yellow soap till they shone like mir
rors, camc in bashfully and sat side by
side, ealing vast quantities Of pig, and
saying never u word.
Supper ended Dan lit his pipe, mixed
his brandy punch, and, after courteously
pressing the tobacco and the spirits on his
guest, invited him to play something.
jumped in my chair again, when Mr..
Campion laughed and drew his fiddle out
of the case once more. o..
He played half dozen tunes. Now, on
the violin, Mr.. Campion was o magician.
For my own part, was carried away into
the seventh heaven from the very begin
ming. First, he played, "Farewen and
adieu to you, Spanish ladies'" which in
spired one with fine feeling of national
pride and respect for seafaring Britons.
Next he played, "Oh, dear what can the
matter be?' song just then quite new,
at least to Dorsetshire folk. This made
us Just little fearful, and put us in the
right frame for early in the morning,
Just as the sun was rising" Then he
played "Within mile O. Edinburgh
town." the most delicious ditty I have ever
heard, then or since. After that he played
"Jack's the lad" the song which they
have since made into the college Horn
pipe" 1t was then that Lan, who had
been Ginning in whenever he happened to
know word or two of the song, noddlng
his head, and beating time with his pipe,
laid it down, and standing up, solemnly
executed something distantly resembling
n sailors hornpipe on the floor. Will
went on playing it, with laugh In his
eyes, faster and faster, till the enthusiasm
spread to Jephthah and Job, who looked at
each other guiltily, and then softly arose
and retired to the adjacent farm yard,
where I saw them in the moonlight
gravely dancing opposite each other where
the straw was driest. Then Will changed
the tune, and played, singing the words
himself in lusty, tuneful baritone,
"While the raging seas did roar" Dan
caught the chorus and sang it with him.
Heavens! what an evening we had! Then
he sang Hearts of oak" Job and
Jephthah came back for this, and steadied
each other, as the song enjoined, with
sympathetic shoulder thwacks heavy
enough to fell an OK.
Lastly my own turn cnme. The musi-
clan stopped, and his expression changed.
He looked thoughtfully for q moment, and
then, still with his eyes fixed upon me,
began to play an air, the like of which I
had never heard or dreamed of; for it
made my heart to beat, my brain to reel,
my eyes to swim. Dan resumed his pipe,
and drank whole glass of brandy punch;
he did not care, apparently, for this kind
of music; Job and Jephthah stole away
noiselessly, and, l suppose, went to bed.
I had q strange and delightful sense that
this music was being played for myself
alone; that the musician took this way of
putting thoughts into my head which had
never been there before. felt passion
ate yearning for something unknown. l
was in some new place Of light and beauty
inconcevable; my spirits rose with kind
of rapture-I was out of the body, float
ing in the air; there were no words in
which could clothe this new sensation.
I could have wept for very joy, but no
tears came. Presently it seemed as if my
feet were moving in cadence, and my
whole frame undulating with the waves
of melody. could bear it no longer, and
should have fallen, but that Dan caught
me with "Steady, pretty, steady! going
to sleep with the music in your eals?'
was not going to sleep, indeed. But
Mr. Campion ceased playing, and told me
that it was German dance.
Nearly all that night I lay awake, Won
dcring what new world was this into
which had got glimpse. And when I
slept it was to dream of strange, delicious
things, clothed in shapes new and de-
lightful.
1t appeared next morning that Dams
idea of entertaining the guest was to hand
him entirely over to me. All the others,
to be sure had work to do. He was easy
to amuse when one got over the first shy
ness: and he was so good and thoughtful
that the shyness very soon disappeared.
Surely, of all the delightful companions
that any girl had mine was the most de-
lightful. He was always happy; nothing
ever ruffled his temper; he was satisfied
with our simple way of life; he seemed to
want nothing else than to 60 about all
day long with me; he never tired of play
ing to us in the evening; he even encour-
aged my ignorant prattle, which must
have seemed to him so silly, and preferred
hearing lie talk to telling Inc stories of
the great world.
He came in August, he stayed with us
all through September and October; he
came when the corn was ripening; he
stayed after the corn was got in, and even
the cider apples gathered. lived, for my
part. in fools paradise, thinking it
would last forever.
The beginning of trouble came from
Joshua Mech.
We were so happy, Dan and I, with our
new friend, that we hardly noticed the
strange fact that Joshua, who had been
won't to spend ut least one evening in the
week with us, had only visited us onca
since Mr.. Campion came. And that even